Senate Approves 200 Federal Judges Chosen by Biden
President Joe Biden reached a significant milestone on Wednesday as the Senate confirmed his 200th judicial nominee. This marks a major achievement in terms of the number of lifetime federal judges he has successfully appointed and the remarkable diversity he has brought to the nation’s courts.
With the confirmation of Angela Martinez to a U.S. district court in Arizona, Biden has now exceeded the number of federal judges appointed by former President Donald Trump at the same point in his presidency. Trump had confirmed 196 judges by this stage, highlighting the swift pace at which Biden has been able to make judicial appointments.
What truly stands out in Biden’s judicial nominations is the level of diversity among his appointees. He has appointed more women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and professionals from diverse backgrounds to lifetime federal judgeships than any of his predecessors, and in some instances, more than all of them combined.
Nearly two-thirds of Biden’s judges are women, totaling 127, while a similar percentage are people of color, with 125 individuals representing diverse racial backgrounds. Notably, about 40% of Biden’s judges are women of color, amounting to 79 judicial appointments.
To provide context, since the establishment of the U.S. federal court system in 1789, a total of 3,254 white men have served as judges on the Supreme Court, appeals courts, or district courts. In contrast, only 416 judges have been white women, and 565 have been people of color, with just 197 of them being women of color.
Biden’s judges also boast remarkable professional diversity, with over 40% of them, totaling 85 appointees, having backgrounds as public defenders or civil rights lawyers. This departure from the longstanding tradition of appointing federal judges from prosecutor or corporate attorney roles reflects Biden’s commitment to a more inclusive judiciary.
Biden’s judicial appointments have also resulted in historic firsts for the federal bench, including the first openly LGBTQ+ woman, Judge Beth Robinson, appointed to a U.S. appeals court and the first Muslim American federal judge, Zahid Quraishi, appointed to a U.S. district court. Additionally, Biden has appointed four Native American individuals to lifetime federal judgeships, representing half of all Native American federal judges in U.S. history.
One of Biden’s most notable appointments is Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, making her the first Black woman and former public defender to serve on the nation’s highest court.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hailed the confirmation of Martinez as a major milestone, emphasizing that Biden’s 200 judges constitute the most diverse group of judicial nominations in American history.
Broken down, Biden’s judicial appointments include one Supreme Court justice, 42 appeals court judges, 155 district court judges, and two Court of International Trade judges, all serving lifetime appointments.
There is speculation that Biden may match Trump’s 177 confirmed district judges by the end of the year, potentially putting him in second place behind former President Jimmy Carter for the most U.S. district judges confirmed in a single term.
Visiting fellow Russell Wheeler of the Brookings Institution’s governance studies program noted that Biden’s primary objective has been to appoint a significant number of judges from diverse backgrounds, surpassing the precedent of predominantly white male appointees. Wheeler commended Biden for exceeding this goal, stating that his record is truly impressive.
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